Dino Babers shares a lot in extensive interview with Syracuse.com

As you’ve become accustomed to by now, Syracuse Orange football coach Dino Babers is virtually everywhere. And while many of those interviews end up brief overall, they usually still provide at least one winning quote in there.

On Thursday, however, Syracuse.com’s Chris Carlson published one of the most extensive interviews yet with the Orange head man, discussing everything from the program rebuild, to why he’s gravitated to football, some of the season’s key decisions and much more.

Also, it gave us this fantastic photo, which will be a fixture on the TNIAAM Twitter feed from now on...

Obviously go read the article. But some of the best quotes below, with some reactions on our end:

On the weather in CNY

“... You can call it global warming or whatever you want, but the weather here has not been bad. I haven’t had that bad winter that everyone says is coming. I haven’t seen it.”

Considering how much time Babers spent in Southern California and Hawaii in his youth, I’m surprised by this, though it’s also a bit of a recruiting sell. I went back to campus last March and it was zero degrees at noon. Considering where I live now, that is hell.

#BRAND

“... I really enjoy going to New York City. I like movies. I’m getting into shows. I like doing it and getting the heck out of there and getting back to Syracuse. I think it’s unique.”

What shows do you think Dino’s gotten into? A few nominees on my end include Jersey Boys, The Lion King and My Fair Lady. Do you think he’s scored tickets to Hamilton? Book of Mormon seems like it’s not exactly his brand of humor, though this song would’ve been very appropriate for SU’s bowl destination.

Dungey vs. DeVito

“... I’d never seen competition like that between two quarterbacks, who were friends, flat-out going for it. I imagine it was like if Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were playing one-on-one to 100, and it’s 98-96 and they’ve been battling all day. It was an unbelievable competition. It was exciting to witness it.”

Babers talks about just how close the competition was between Eric Dungey and Tommy DeVito in the week leading into the NC Stat game. He also notes that “the internet” won’t remind him it was the right call to go with Dungey since it worked out. AU CONTRAIRE! As representatives of the Syracuse internet, we will not only admit it was the right call, but point out that we (I, in particular) endorsed the wrong call at the time.

On whether Syracuse can win the ACC Atlantic

“We were two fourth-quarter leads from doing it this year.”

Thanks for the reminder. (/vomits)

How to succeed academically in a nice climate

“... Now, I graduated with honors. But I still went to the beach every day from my sophomore to senior year. I shouldn’t say every day. I went as much as I could possibly go. I mean, I’m on an island. The difference is that I went to the beach with my books.”

As part of the same response, Babers talked about how players’ nightlife affected their day life, and how natural that is at one point or another in college — and it even was for him as a freshman. Since Dino arrived he’s stressed excellence on the field and in the classroom, and it’s entertaining to see he shares some personal anecdotes on how it went wrong for him and how he fixed it.

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Plenty more in there to read through, so check out the interview.